Basketball Coach Unplugged (A Basketball Coaching Podcast)

https://teachhoops.com/ When to burn one, what to say in thirty seconds, and why most timeouts send players back out knowing less than when they sat down. Coach Steve Collins has a confession. For his first five years as a head coach, he called timeouts mostly for himself. He was frustrated, the gym was loud, and he needed it to stop. One night, down six in the third quarter, he talked fast and loud for a full minute about everything, and his point guard walked back onto the floor and asked, "Coach, what are we running?" That was not a timeout. That was stopping the clock. In this deep dive, Steve breaks down how to decide when a timeout is worth spending, how to use the first ten seconds with your staff, what to actually say in the thirty seconds you have, and how to practice the timeout itself so it becomes calm, routine, and useful by opening night. Part 1: Why and Who The minute long timeout that left the most important player on the floor knowing nothing The four jobs of a timeout: stop a run, fix one thing, set up a play, give tired legs a breath Why timeouts are money, and the late game possession Steve watched helplessly after spending them early Budgeting timeouts: one or two in the first half, and always two saved for the last three minutes Giving your team one possession to answer a run before you stop it Using the first ten seconds for a quick staff huddle, then speaking with one voice Part 2: What Gets Said The thirty second script: what is happening, what we do about it, and who does it The clipboard trap, and why a timeout is the place to call a play you own, not teach a new one Managing emotion before information, because upset players cannot hear X's and O's The senior who needed a hand on his shoulder before he could hear the next assignment Practicing real timeouts in the middle of a Tuesday scrimmage until they become routine Rehearsing the late game timeout with the clock running, so February is not the first time Keeping a postgame timeout log to learn how you coach in the hardest moments Chapters 00:00 Coach Unplugged intro 00:16 Opening hook: calling timeouts for the coach 01:16 Preroll: TeachHoops.com special situations and end of game plans 01:39 The point guard who did not know the play 02:31 Takeaway 1: Know why before you call it 04:35 Takeaway 2: Staff first, then one voice 06:20 Takeaway 3: The thirty second script 07:39 Midroll: TeachHoops.com after timeout plays and community 08:01 Takeaway 4: Emotion first, then information 09:08 Takeaway 5: Practice your timeouts 10:45 The challenge 10:56 Postroll: TeachHoops.com This week's challenge: Write down your four reasons to call a timeout, and do not call one this season unless you can name the reason. Format: Deep Dive, two parts. Resources: After timeout plays, end of game situations, special situations playbooks, practice plans, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

https://teachhoops.com/ Why the best game one scouting report fits on an index card, and what to do when last year's film lies to you. The best scouting report Coach Steve Collins ever handed a team fit on an index card. The worst one was eleven pages long, stapled by hand, and built on film of three starters who were not even on the floor that night. His team spent the first quarter guarding ghosts and lost by nineteen. That loss changed how he thought about game one. The opener is the hardest scout of the entire season. Rosters have turned over, your own rotation is still a guess, and last year's film is more rumor than report. In this three part deep dive, Steve walks through how to gather information that actually holds up in October, how to get it off the paper and into your players' bodies, and how to keep the scout from turning into a list of reasons to be nervous. Part 1: Gathering the Scout Why you scout yourself first, and the one hour of your own scrimmage film that is worth five hours of theirs Scouting the coach instead of the roster, because players graduate but a coach's habits after a made basket, out of a timeout, and under two minutes almost never change The ten minute phone call to a league coach who played them last February Finding three things instead of thirty, and why a long scout usually protects the coach more than it prepares the team Part 2: Getting It to Stick Two scouting reports: the staff version with everything, and the index card version your players actually carry The three lines that were on Steve's best card, and the fourteen point win that followed Teaching the scout with bodies instead of a whiteboard, and why your scout team is the most important group in the gym during game week The left handed sophomore who studied film on his own, became the opponent's best player for three days, and held the real one to seven Preparing principles instead of predictions, so your team has an answer ready for a press, a zone, or a switch it never saw on film How to split game week: Monday is about us, ten to fifteen minutes of them on Tuesday and Wednesday, a calm walkthrough Thursday Why nothing new gets installed for game one: a new set on Wednesday is a turnover on Friday Part 3: Game Night Why the first four minutes of the game are the real scout, and the one job to give somebody on your bench The senior manager with a spiral notebook who caught a timeout set in a sectional final and won a game without scoring a point Halftime as your second scout: two minutes with your staff, then one or two adjustments, never five Scouting yourself again on Saturday morning, because your next opponent is already watching that film How an overbuilt scout sent a team out of the locker room tight, quiet, and playing scared The ratio Steve landed on: for every thing you tell them about the opponent, tell them one thing about us Why your last words before tip should be about who you are, not who they are Chapters 00:00 Coach Unplugged intro 00:15 The eleven page scout and the index card 01:04 Pre-roll: TeachHoops.com scouting templates and game week plans 01:25 Guarding ghosts: why game one is the hardest scout of the year 02:20 Takeaway 1: Scout yourself first 03:09 Takeaway 2: Scout the coach, not the roster 04:22 Takeaway 3: Three things, not thirty 06:08 Takeaway 4: The staff knows everything, the players get the card 07:15 Takeaway 5: Teach it with bodies, and the left handed sophomore 09:08 Mid-roll: TeachHoops.com scout team drills and the coaching community 09:31 Takeaway 6: Principles, not predictions 11:35 Takeaway 7: The real scout starts at tip off, halftime, and Saturday film 13:41 Takeaway 8: Do not let the scout scare them 16:11 Scouting can sharpen a team. It cannot replace one. 16:17 The index card challenge and post-roll This week's challenge: Write your game one scouting report on a single index card. Three lines. If it does not fit, it does not go. Hand the card to your players and keep the rest for yourself. Format: Deep Dive, three parts. Resources: Scouting templates, game week plans, scout team drills, practice plans, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

https://teachhoops.com/ A retired coach on the difference between the November version of you and the February version, and how to keep them closer together. SHOW NOTES After thirty seven years, Coach Steve Collins can finally see the thing he could not see while he was inside it: he planned five months of conditioning for his players and nothing at all for himself. This episode is an honest look at what actually empties a coach's tank, which is almost never the games, plus a practical energy plan for a long season and the one signal that tells you you are running on empty. What we cover: •   The November coach and the February coach are different people, and your team can feel it •   What really drains you: the email, the scheduling, the conflict, the paperwork on a Sunday •   Building recovery into the week, including one day you do not talk about basketball •   Handing assistants real work instead of hoarding it out of fear •   Sleep, eating at the gym, keeping one non basketball person, and no film at two in the morning This week's challenge: Block one day on your calendar where basketball is not allowed, and protect it like you protect a game night. Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. EPISODE DETAILS Runtime: 4 minutes 45 seconds Audio file: 10_coach_energy.mp3 LINKS https://teachhoops.com/ https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ https://heysammi.com/ You Built a Conditioning Plan for Them, So Where Is Yours? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/ TITLE What Are Coaches Actually Asking When Nobody Else Is Listening? SUBTITLE A look inside a Teach Hoops member call, where real coaches bring the problems they are living with this week. SHOW NOTES This one is a recording of a Teach Hoops member call. No prepared topic, no script, just coaches bringing what is actually going on in their gyms and working through it together. If you have ever wondered whether the thing you are dealing with is normal, this is the episode that answers it. What we cover: Questions straight from coaches in the middle of their season Problems that come up in almost every program, whatever the level Where coaches disagree with each other, and why both answers can work The value of hearing somebody else describe your exact situation How the member calls work and who is in the room This week's challenge: Write down the one question you would ask if you were on the call, then go find somebody to ask it. Resources: Member calls, practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Making Practice Better https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/ TITLE How Many Reps Did Your Players Actually Get Yesterday? SUBTITLE Practice quality is a number you can count, and most coaches have never once counted it. SHOW NOTES Coaches judge practice on how it felt. Felt sharp, felt flat. Coach Collins makes the case for judging it on something harder and more honest: how many real repetitions each player got, how much of the gym was moving at any moment, and how much of your two hours went to things that were not basketball. Small structural changes here are worth more than any new drill. What we cover: Counting touches instead of trusting how practice felt Where the minutes actually go, and the parts nobody notices losing Running two things at once instead of everybody watching one Adding a score to a drill and what it does to effort Ending practice on something that tells you whether it worked This week's challenge: Pick one player and count his actual repetitions for a twenty minute stretch of your next practice. Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Teach Hoops One-on-One Call https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/ TITLE What Happens When One Coach Gets an Hour on His Own Program? SUBTITLE A Teach Hoops one on one call, where a single coach brings his actual situation and we work through it out loud. SHOW NOTES This is a recording of a Teach Hoops one on one call. Different from the group member calls: one coach, one program, and enough time to get past the surface of the problem to whatever is actually causing it. Names and details are shared with permission, and the value for you is that the underlying issue is almost never unique to him. What we cover: One coach's real situation, described in his own words Getting underneath the stated problem to the actual one Working the solution in real time instead of offering general advice Where his instincts were right and where they were leading him wrong What a coach can act on the very next day This week's challenge: Write down the problem in your program you have been avoiding, in one sentence, and notice how much clearer it gets on paper. Resources: One on one calls, member calls, practice plans, drills, and courses at https://teachhoops.com/ https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if you built your first two weeks backwards from opening night? https://teachhoops.com/ Most coaches plan practice forwards and run out of calendar, so here is how to start at game one and work your way back. SHOW NOTES Ask most coaches how many practices they have before their first game and you get a guess. That guess is exactly why the Thursday before the opener turns into a panic session where you cram four installs into ninety minutes. In this two part episode, Coach Steve Collins builds the first two weeks in reverse, starting with the date of game one and working back to what has to be true by then. What we cover: •   Counting your real practices instead of your calendar days •   The difference between your install list and your functional list •   Using "what will beat us in game one" to organize everything •   Why habits and sequencing come before any play you love •   The day ten test that tells you if you are ahead or behind This week's challenge: Write the date of your first game on a page, count the practices you actually have, and cross one thing off your install list. Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. EPISODE DETAILS Runtime: 10 minutes 6 seconds Audio file: 03_first_two_weeks.mp3 LINKS https://teachhoops.com/ https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ https://heysammi.com/ What If You Built Your First Two Weeks Backwards From Opening Night? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you have standards, or do you just have a lot of rules? https://teachhoops.com/ Why three things you will stop practice for beat twenty things nobody enforces after Thanksgiving. SHOW NOTES Most programs walk into the first week of practice with a handbook full of rules and not one real standard. Coach Steve Collins breaks down the difference between a line you cannot cross and a level you hold, and why the long list actually teaches your team that you do not mean what you say. This one is meant to be used before your first whistle, not after your first problem. What we cover: •   Rules stop behavior, standards set a level, and most gyms are drowning in the first •   Why twenty rules is a bluff and three standards is a program •   A standard only exists if you stop practice for it, including when you are winning •   How to tell a standard from a slogan on the wall •   Letting your players help write them, and what happens the first time you let one slide This week's challenge: Write down three things you will stop the gym for every single time, and find out this Tuesday whether you meant them. Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. EPISODE DETAILS Runtime: 5 minutes 25 seconds Audio file: 07_standards_vs_rules.mp3 LINKS https://teachhoops.com/ https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ https://heysammi.com/ Do You Have Standards, or Do You Just Have a Lot of Rules? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

https://teachhoops.com/ How do you cut a kid without cutting him badly? The roster number is a philosophy, the conversation is a skill, and neither one gets easier after thirty seven years. SHOW NOTES Twenty two kids in the gym, fourteen spots, and four of the five kids on the bubble are basically the same player. Steve has been in that room more times than he can count, and he never once slept well the night before cuts. This episode is not about evaluating. It is about the human cost of the decision, what you actually say when you deliver it, and how you carry it afterward. What we cover: •   Why the number you keep is a philosophy decision, not a gym capacity decision •   The difference between a kid going home disappointed and a kid going home humiliated •   Why you never hand the cut to an assistant or a list on a door •   The sentence Steve used for twenty five years: here is the one thing that would change my answer next year •   What you owe the parents, what you do not, and how to leave a door open without making a promise This week's challenge: Pick the kid you are dreading most and write out his one sentence now, while you are still calm. Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. EPISODE DETAILS Runtime: 10 minutes 32 seconds Audio file: 02_cutting_players.mp3 LINKS https://teachhoops.com/ https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ https://heysammi.com/ How Do You Cut a Kid Without Cutting Him Badly? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

https://teachhoops.com/  TITLEWho Is Going to Tell Him the Truth About His Role, You or the Scoreboard? SUBTITLEThe four minute conversation every kid on your roster has earned, and the cowardly answer most of us give instead. SHOW NOTESEvery player on your team already has a role, whether you named it or not. Coach Steve Collins tells the story of a senior who invented his own role and spent two months fighting the wrong battle because nobody would sit him down. This episode is about the coach to player conversation itself: how short it should be, how specific it has to be, and why "just keep working hard" is the worst thing you can send a kid home with. What we cover: - If you do not name a kid's role he will invent one, and it will be too big- Why the talk has to happen before game four does it for you- The one thing that would move him, instead of a list of five- Giving him a role he can be great at rather than a smaller version of somebody else's- A role is not a ceiling, and why you have this conversation again in January This week's challenge: Get every kid on your roster alone for four minutes and tell him the truth before the scoreboard does. Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. Runtime: 4 minutes 52 seconds https://teachhoops.com/ https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ https://heysammi.com/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Do You Coach a Blowout (on the wrong end) https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/ TITLE What Do You Say When Your Team Is Getting Run Off the Floor? SUBTITLE The game is decided, there are twelve minutes left, and how you handle them says more about your program than the final score. SHOW NOTES Every coach gets one. Down twenty five, the other team is still pressing, and your bench has stopped looking at you. This episode is about what to actually do with the rest of that night: what to say in the huddle, what to say after, and how to keep a beating from turning into something your team carries into next week. What we cover: Deciding early that the scoreboard is no longer the point What to give them to compete for when the game is gone Handling the huddle without lying to them or crushing them The locker room afterward, and the one thing not to do Turning the film from a loss like this into something useful This week's challenge: Decide now what you will say in that huddle, before you are standing in it. Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fundamentals vs. Game Tactics https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/ TITLE Should You Be Teaching Fundamentals or Running Your Offense? SUBTITLE Every practice plan is a trade between the two, and most coaches get the ratio wrong without ever noticing. SHOW NOTES There are only so many minutes in a practice, and every one you spend on footwork is a minute you did not spend on your offense. Coach Collins works through how to think about that trade honestly, why the answer changes with the age group and the time of year, and how to tell from watching a game which side of the ledger your team is short on. What we cover: Why the fundamentals versus tactics question is really a question about minutes How the right ratio shifts from youth to high school, and from October to February The tell in a game that says your problem is skill, not scheme Teaching fundamentals inside your offense instead of as a separate block What happens to a team that only ever runs plays This week's challenge: Add up the minutes in your last practice plan and find out what your actual split was, not what you thought it was. Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

https://teachhoops.com/ Are Your Players Hearing You, or Actually Seeing It?Why installation week moves twice as fast when you stop explaining and start showing. Show Notes Installation week always sounds the same. A coach talking, a group of heads nodding, and then total chaos the second the ball goes up. This episode makes the case that the problem is not attention. It is that most young players learn with their eyes and we keep teaching with our mouths. What we cover: Show it before you say it, so the words have a picture to stick to Putting a screen in your gym, and why twenty seconds of clip beats two minutes of talking One cue, then go, because when you stack four instructions they keep the last one Letting players watch their own possession and coach themselves off it Locking your vocabulary in October so you are not reteaching words in February This week's challenge: install one thing using under thirty seconds of talking. Show it, run it, fix one detail, run it again. Resources: Practice plans, teaching progressions, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/ Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices